In secured data transmission systems or cryptosystems, the use of standardized encryption algorithms provides a common platform from which compatible system components may be developed and/or deployed. Current encryption standards include the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and the Triple DES or 3DES. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) specified 3DES to provide more secure encryption than that achieved by DES given of the vulnerability of the latter to the use of more powerful computers. The use of 3DES was viewed as a temporary solution and on Nov. 26, 2001, NIST introduced the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 197, with the purpose of providing a longer term platform for the development of more secure cryptosystems. The AES specifies a FIPS-approved cryptographic algorithm, based on the Rijndael algorithm, that may be utilized to protect electronic data.
The AES algorithm is a symmetric block cipher that is capable of encrypting plaintext information into ciphertext and also decrypting ciphertext information into plaintext or descrambled information. The AES algorithm may use cryptographic or cipher keys of 128, 192, or 256 bits to encrypt and decrypt blocks of data. The length of the cipher key sequence is referred to as the key length, K. Input and output data blocks in the AES algorithm each consists of sequences of 128 bits. The length of the data blocks is referred to as the block length. In addition, the AES specification provides that the AES algorithm may be implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. The specification, however, does not provide a specific implementation, instead, the implementation may be based on several factors, for example, the environment, application, and technology being used.
In some instances, the security capabilities provided by the AES encryption/decryption standard may not be sufficient to accommodate the requirements of cryptosystems when utilized under certain conditions and/or certain applications. In these cases, an already taxed digital signal processor (DSP), system processor, or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) may not be easily, or cost-effectively, adapted to accommodate the demands imposed by the application and/or conditions for which the secured data transmission system is intended.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.